Cuomo and legislative leaders say they have a deal to restructure state income tax
Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders announced today that they've reached a deal to restructure the state's income tax.
The Cuomo admin is touting the restructuring as an attempt to "restore fairness to the tax system." Basically, it makes the tax structure more progressive -- that is, the more a person makes, the higher their rate. The admin says 4.4 million New Yorkers will get a tax cut under the new structure.
So, if you're under $300,000 (and more than $40k), you would get a tax cut under this arrangement. Above $300k, your taxes are going up (compared to the rate from a few years back). [NY Post]
As usual, it's little (or a lot) more complicated than that. The bracket breakdown in the press release doesn't really tell the whole story because it doesn't include the temporary personal income surcharge ("millionaire's tax") that's currently in effect -- the TU's Jimmy Vielkind has put together a spreadsheet that makes it a bit more clear.
The Cuomo admin says the new structure generates $1.9 billion in additional revenue for the state -- though that's about $2 billion less than what was generated by the "millionaire's tax", which expires at the end of this month. [NYT] [TU CapCon]
The deal announced today also includes funding for infrastructure projects, support for a constitutional amendment to allow full casino gaming, grants for flood recovery, a few other initiatives.
If you're thinking to yourself: "Wait, did I miss the part where this was all discussed and debated publicly?" The answer is: no, of course not. This is New York.
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Comments
Everyone and their mother has been pontificating about the millionaire's tax for at least the past three years. So I don't see it as true that this was not "discussed and debated publicly."
... said Bob on Dec 6, 2011 at 4:59 PM | link
Yes, Bob, execpt in the Capitol. There was no recorded, public discussion in either chamber of Legislature.
Blog discussions don't exactly count as our representatives publicly debating policy.
Overall, the cuts to the lower/middle classes are miniscule as is the hike to the upper class. What a joke...
... said Jay on Dec 6, 2011 at 5:43 PM | link
I'd say that this is an improvement. At a time of rapidly growing wealth disparity, the proposed tax code is more progressive than what we would have otherwise got. So that's progress. Incremental progress, but progress. Am I missing something? (Really, I want to know).
... said Jason on Dec 6, 2011 at 10:00 PM | link